Special Education column

Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health say they have
found further evidence that attention-deficit disorder has a
neurobiological basis.

The five-year study, one of the largest of its kind to date, looked
at 112 boys, ages 5 to 18, roughly half of whom had been diagnosed with
the disorder and half of whom had not. An estimated 3 percent to 10
percent of school-age children are thought to have the disorder, which
is characterized by an inability to concentrate and, in many cases,
impulsiveness and hyperactivity.

The study results were outlined this month at the national meeting
of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders, a Plantation,
Fla.-based advocacy group. The study will be published in an upcoming
issue of the American Medical Association's Archives of General
Psychiatry.

Researchers found statistically significant size differences in
certain regions of the boys' brains--regions that control functions
such as inhibition and planning. They also found that the boys with add
had symmetrical right and left sides of their brains; for the control
group, the right side of the brain was larger than the left.

Some of the boys with add had been treated previously with stimulant
medication. While the researchers do not believe that the medication
caused the differences in the two groups' brains, they have begun a
study of boys who have never used such medication. They are also
testing girls ages 5 to 18 to see if the findings hold true across
gender lines.

An advocacy group for people with mental retardation has given most
states an F for not including children with mental retardation in
regular classrooms.

The Arc, based in Arlington, Tex., found that children with mental
retardation are six times less likely than other children with
disabilities to be educated alongside their nondisabled peers. Only 7.1
percent of children with mental retardation were educated in regular
classrooms during the 1992-93 school year.

Federal special-education law requires that students be educated in
the "least restrictive environment" possible. The rankings are based on
data that states report to the U.S. Department of Education.

Vermont claimed the only B grade, with nearly 75 percent of its
mentally retarded students placed in regular classrooms. Of the 50
states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, 35 received an F.
No state got an A.

According to the group, Vermont, Texas, Idaho, Montana, and Kentucky
ranked as the five most inclusive states, while Florida, Rhode Island,
Illinois, the District of Columbia, and New Jersey were at the bottom
of the list.

--Lynn Schnaiberg

Vol. 15, Issue 12

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